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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Too many potatoes on Uttar Pradesh's plate -Maulshree Seth

Too many potatoes on Uttar Pradesh's plate -Maulshree Seth

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published Published on Jan 20, 2018   modified Modified on Jan 20, 2018
-The Indian Express

Behind dumping of potatoes, including outside Assembly, a bumper crop and insufficient storage space.

Lucknow:
Uttar Pradesh, the largest potato producing state with about 35% of the country’s total output, has had a bumper crop in 2016-17 — over 155 lakh tonnes — with the result that potatoes are rotting along roadsides and outside cold storage units.

What threw the spotlight on the surplus — apparently more than the government can manage — was the dumping of potatoes in front of the Legislative Assembly earlier this month, and the response by the police who claimed the protest was political, not by farmers. Police arrested two persons and booked six others on charges of mischief by injury to public road, and alleged that two of those booked, Shivendra Singh and Jai Kumar Tiwari, were Samajwadi Party leaders and the rest their friends, barring the driver of the truck where the potatoes were brought. Most of those booked belonged to Kannauj. Police also suspended four constables and a sub-inspector for negligence in the high-security area.

While the police call it political and the Congress has taken up the issue, farmers and owners of cold storage units told The Indian Express the government has not been able to buy or store enough. As large amounts lay in cold storage waiting for the market to improve, the approaching new season by January-end meant that farmers no longer found it feasible to pay for cold storage. Thus, they said, they decided either to leave the crop in cold storage without paying the rent, or to dump it.

The government claims it made a record purchase of about 13,000 quintals in April-May alone last year, and fixed the minimum support price for potato at Rs 487 per quintal in April. In other moves, the government made it mandatory to cook potatoes in midday meals for over 1 crore children of government schools. Farmers claim only 13% of the surplus was utilised after these moves.

Although the problem has been extreme this year, farmers say they have been struggling for the last few years with the price dropping from Rs 800-900 per quintal three years ago to Rs 600-800 in 2015-16. Besides, they say, prices actually fetched in the market were less than the rent for cold storage.

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The Indian Express, 19 January, 2018, http://indianexpress.com/article/india/too-many-potatoes-on-uttar-pradeshs-plate-yogi-adityanath-5030790/


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